The Perfect Scream

by James Andrus

  When she didn’t answer, he said, “C’mon, just one drink.”

  She nodded her head reluctantly. “Okay, just the one. Then you have to leave me alone.”

  He smiled and she appreciated how cute he really was.

  He said, “I can wear anyone down eventually.” He ordered a Grey Goose on the rocks and she was able to talk him out of a shot of tequila and into another chardonnay for her.

  The bartender caught Lynn’s eye in a subtle way. She understood he was silently asking her if this guy was bothering her. She smiled and shook her head, not wanting to draw attention to herself, but she realized she was losing an opportunity. They sat and sipped their drinks while the pest told her he was a stockbroker in Orlando and had attended UCF. She was surprised how few questions he asked about her so she didn’t have to be evasive.

  Then she saw Kyle stand up and greet a burly young man in a tight-fitting UCF football jersey. The window had closed. She realized there was nothing to do now but step back.

  Lynn looked at the pest and said, “I’m sorry, I’m running late. I really have to be leaving.” Before the young man could put up any argument she grabbed her purse from the stool and immediately started to hustle through the door. She made it all the way to her car, then started to feel an odd sensation. A letdown. Lynn realized she’d been looking forward to using the knife on Kyle. It scared her to have feelings like this.

  Lynn looked down the aisle of vehicles and saw Kyle’s truck. She wondered what would happen if she simply waited in the parking lot and caught him as he tried to get into the truck. She reached into her pocket and felt the solid outline of the Buck knife. Then, from behind her, she heard the pest yell, “Hey, cutie, I didn’t even get your number.”

  Something came over her in an instant as she watched the young man jog toward her. She visualized plunging the knife into his neck. Then she rationalized that she could use the practice. Lynn said out loud, with almost no thought, “Why don’t you follow me down the street while I run an errand? Then we’ll see what happens.”

  The broad smile on the young man’s face was all the answer she needed.

  Patty Levine laid on the gas a little hard in her personal Jeep Liberty. She liked the way the small SUV handled and the zip it had on the street. She occasionally got stopped by troopers on the interstate but rarely had to go so far as to play the fellow police officer card. A pleasant smile or giggle was enough to make the big bad Florida state troopers tell her it was “okay, just bring it down a few miles from now on.” She was sorry she was leaving her family’s home in Ocala. The Saturday after Thanksgiving was always a lot of fun. They would watch the UF–FSU game and she’d play touch football with her brothers in the backyard. They would all drink a lot of beer and she’d forget her problems.

  There were no grandkids in the family yet, so there was no need to be responsible and watch the kids. The brother a year younger than her had a tremendous fear of commitment. He’d be unattached well into his thirties. And her youngest brother was probably gay, but he hadn’t come out of the closet and no one pushed too hard to find out for sure. Patty didn’t understand his reticence because no one in her family had ever shown any bias against gay people. But it was hard to predict how people want to be viewed. It wasn’t like they were Catholics. They were Methodists, the ostriches of the faith community. What they didn’t know and didn’t see, they didn’t care about.

  Patty was pushing her blue Jeep hard because she wanted to surprise Ken. It was probably a little early in a relationship for her to show up unannounced on Friday night, but it was a risk she was willing to take. She wanted to know if he was a player. Something told her he was more interested in one woman at a time.

  Patty pulled off the exit just past the Flagler County line and found his condo, sitting on a river. Ken had already told her he wanted to find a house closer to the ocean, but that this condo was very comfortable. He said he had a weakness for comfort.

  She hesitated in the parking lot, wondering if she should give him a quick call on her cell phone. But as she approached the front door a man was coming out and held it for her. It was a sign, as far as she was concerned.

  She paused again as the elevator opened on the fourth floor and she stepped out into the hallway. Ken’s apartment was at the end on the right. Patty swallowed hard and started walking at a steady pace as the door got closer and closer. Before she could talk herself out of it, she pushed the doorbell and heard the chime on the inside. Immediately she could hear someone moving inside.

  She held her breath, wondering if this was a bad idea. How she would explain herself? What would she say if there was someone in the apartment with him?

  The door opened. Patty looked in and had to take a moment to assess what she was seeing. Without meaning to, she said out loud, “What the hell is this?”

  It wasn’t hard for Lynn to convince the little stockbroker pest to follow her in his Mustang. She had no real plan where she was going but knew if she wanted to do anything at all it could not be in the parking lot of The Knight’s Tower. A real thrill rushed through her and she visualized how she might best utilize the knife. It seemed like such a good idea but also a huge risk.

  The streets of Winter Park were very quiet as she drove north on one of the main highways. The pest was still directly behind her. She saw a large parking lot with only a very few cars in it. It was an off-brand supermarket that had taken over the shell of a departed Kmart. She pulled to the far corner where burned-out lights caused huge shadows.

  She was out of the car with the Buck knife in her hand before the red Mustang had pulled to a stop. Lynn liked the weight of the sturdy knife in her hand. She hadn’t opened it yet. Staring down at it made her heart rate increase and she felt an odd surge of power.

  The pest hopped out of his Mustang and scurried back to her like a kid ready to open a Christmas present. He all but rubbed his hands in nervous anticipation.

  As he came closer, Lynn felt like she was snapped back to reality. What was she thinking? This is exactly what she did not want to become. A random killer. Not only would it divert her from her real mission, it would eat away at her from the inside out. This was not who she was or how she’d been raised.

  She still had the empty, unsatisfied feeling of allowing Kyle Lee to escape. And it was pretty much this idiot’s fault. As he stumbled to a stop right in front of her, Lynn looked at him and without thinking swung her hand with the closed knife in it. She struck him across the temple and watched him drop to the ground like a sack of rice. He lay there, stunned and disoriented, while she stood above him trying to gather some of the excitement she had lost when Kyle Lee walked out of the bar.

  It clearly wasn’t as exciting as plunging a knife into someone’s throat. But she knew this was a better option. Lynn looked down at the stunned man and said, “Have you learned your lesson?”

  The pest still couldn’t speak. He was able to cut his eyes up at her as blood dripped down from the gash on the side of his head.

  “When a woman tells you to leave her alone, you leave her alone. Do you understand that?”

  In addition to being hurt, the young man now started to tremble uncontrollably. He struggled to simply nod his head.

  Now Lynn was experiencing some of the high she’d missed. The young man’s shaking body and blood satisfied her need to feel important. It was not as effective a practice run as using the blade of the knife, but she figured if she could knock a healthy, adult male off his feet by slapping him in the head with a closed knife, an open one would be even more effective.

  She left him whimpering in the dirty parking lot. Maybe he wouldn’t bother women anymore.

  EIGHTEEN

  Patty stood at the door speechless. She had considered a number of possibilities as she took the elevator up, but this was not one of them. Though she had meant to surprise Ken, she now found she was the one who’d been surprised. This had been a test. She’d prepared herself for the fact that it could
destroy their fledgling relationship. But she’d thought it was better to know things now rather than wait and invest months with someone she couldn’t trust.

  However, this was different.

  Ken stared at her and could only manage a “Hey.”

  “Hey.” Her voice seemed small and shaky.

  “I didn’t expect any company.”

  “Obviously.”

  “Would you like to come in?”

  She couldn’t believe how cool he was being.

  Ken said, “I thought you’d be in Ocala and I needed a night like this.” He lifted his hands above his head and swept them down his body. He wore a clear plastic shower cap with some type of cream conditioner in his hair. His face had avocado mask smeared over it. He had mitts over his hands. A dark silk robe ran the length of his body and his toes were separated by cotton balls. All he could say was “I needed a night of beauty.”

  Then Patty started to laugh uncontrollably.

  It took a while for Stallings to pinpoint what was bothering him. Or at least what was bothering him more than usual. It had been the sight of his father breaking down and sobbing. He’d never seen his father lose control like that before. When Stallings was a child, his father had seemed like the biggest, toughest man who ever lived. Now he realized his father’s distance and drinking had kept him from any broad emotional displays. But now the older, frailer version of James Stallings cried for more than twenty minutes about God knew what, taking Stallings by surprise.

  His father wasn’t able to put his finger on it, but he felt it was a combination of his fading memory and his inability to help her son find Jeanie. Grace was wonderful as she sat there quietly and offered the occasional hug. She even volunteered to come with Stallings when he left in case he needed something, but he knew right now he needed to be alone. After dropping his father off at the rooming house where he lived, Stallings headed toward his own house in Lakewood.

  Having a few minutes to think, he wondered if it would be a good time to take a leave of absence from the sheriff’s office. An extended leave from work, so he could do nothing but concentrate on finding Jeanie. But immediately he saw the error in his plan. He would limit his resources if he wasn’t at the sheriff’s office. The other issue was Zach Halston. The fraternity brother had gotten under his skin and no matter what, with or without Jeanie, he still needed to find out what had happened to Zach Halston. Some people called it the gift of curiosity and the building block of what made a good cop, but Stallings looked at it more as a curse. Once something got in his head, there was almost no way to move on until he resolved the issue entirely. It was that attitude in homicide that drove him to spend so much time on each case he lost track of his own family. He couldn’t live with the idea of a killer getting away with a murder. It kept him awake at night. To this day he still kept track of the few cold-case homicides he couldn’t solve. That’s what he did and who he was. You could never escape responsibility. Responsibility to your kids at home, or your parents as they got older, or your work if you took it seriously.

  One bright spot in the evening was getting to know someone like Grace Jackson, who was just the kind of example he needed to keep moving forward and not lose hope.

  It was a long drive back to Jacksonville, and it gave Lynn time to think. She could not deny the immense satisfaction she’d felt slapping the knife across the stockbroker’s face. The power that surged through her was not quite as exhilarating as killing someone, but it was a temporary remedy.

  She didn’t want to be like the killers she’d read about. She didn’t want to be driven by only one thing. She had a life. A family. Lynn still wanted to have a family of her own. Now she was determined more than ever to finish this and move on with her life.

  She’d get to Kyle Lee next week, then follow her schedule to be done with all of this by the New Year. Then she could pursue the life she had intended. No regrets and no more anger.

  NINETEEN

  John Stallings had driven the length of University Boulevard, which ran through the entire city from Lakewood. He rented this tiny house all the way north where it ended in Charter Point. The road got its name from Jacksonville University or, as virtually everyone in the city called it, JU. It was a smaller, private university known for its basketball and baseball teams. The argument could be made that the much larger public university, the University of North Florida, was also close to University Boulevard, but in reality it was farther east, off Kernan Boulevard near J. Turner Butler Boulevard. The large apartment complex that served as the hub for fraternity houses was closer to UNF on Bean Boulevard.

  Right now the fraternity house and the missing Zach Halston were not the primary ideas occupying his mind. Armed with the photograph of Zach Halston and Jeanie, Stallings intended to question the owners of all the small, independent shops that lined the road in different areas. Kyle Lee had said that he thought Jeanie worked in one of the shops. Stallings intended to find out if that was true.

  Stallings felt guilty about not inviting Patty. But he couldn’t let her know what he was really looking into. He rationalized it by thinking it was more efficient for Patty to look at other elements of the investigation anyway. He’d told her he was going to be checking with snitches, which he intended to do, and they were skittish around more than one cop at a time. Patty had met a couple of his informants over the years and knew this was true.

  Stallings pulled to the curb in front of an antique clothing shop. He recognized this was the first time he’d ever taken an active step in interviewing a potential witness about his missing daughter. Sure, he had his regular routine. He called around on Thursdays to missing persons detectives all across the country and on Saturdays he sent emails to even more. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children knew Stallings’s name better than any other law enforcement officer in the country. His daughter had more cops looking for her than any missing teen in history. But until today he could look his bosses in the eye and say that he, personally, had never investigated his daughter’s disappearance.

  He sat in the car for a moment looking into the plate-glass window at the elegant, frilly long dresses and took a deep breath. Then he said in a clear voice, “Is today the day that changes the rest of my life?”

  Kyle Lee wasted no time calling together the inner circle of Tau Upsilon. He had waited until most of the guys had gotten out of their morning classes. Many of them took classes as a group so they could study together, or get ahold of an old test and use it as the ultimate study guide. Kyle had skipped class this morning; he was too worried to concentrate. The weekend had been brutal, isolated at his parents’ house, unable to talk to the people he needed to talk to. He’d barely paid attention to the Florida State–Florida game. He had just sat at a party, going over all the possibilities in his head.

  But now, in front of his eight most trusted friends, he felt more confident. Kyle looked around the room and said, “We all know that a cop has been looking for Zach Halston.”

  One of the brothers from the back of the room said, “You mean the two cops who came out to the hotel on the beach? One of them was a really cute chick.”

  “And the other one’s name was John Stallings. He is not cute and he is not a chick. I did some research online and found out he is one of their top homicide detectives. He caught the crazy guy that was strangling women. He also caught the Bag Man last year. He is a big shot at JSO. Why do you think he’s looking for Zach?”

  Kyle waited while the group huddled in close for a serious discussion. Finally, Elroy looked up and said, “You think he’s more interested in things that might’ve happened over the last few years?”

  Kyle shrugged. “I don’t think he’s working in narcotics. And I don’t believe he’s only in missing persons and worried about Zach’s well-being. That means he’s interested in things we don’t want to talk about.” He looked around the room, making sure he had everyone’s attention. “It’s more important now than ever before that we
stick together. No one talks to the cops about anything unless we hear from Zach. If he calls or contacts any of us, we need to let the cop know.”

  Elroy raised a long, skinny arm. The odd, birdlike young man said, “Do you think Zach is a victim of the curse?”

  “There is no curse, Big Bird. The fraternity has just seen some bad luck.”

  “It seems like a missing brother, one dead from an overdose, and one killed in a robbery is more than a coincidence.”

  That caused a stir among the crowd and Kyle knew he needed for them to focus. He raised his voice and said, “You’re talking about stuff that’s happened over a year and a half. We have a lot of members and shit happens. Think about how many members we have who did good things over the same time. Think about how many got a decent job, or got married, or graduated with honors. A few accidents don’t make a curse. You guys all know what I’m talking about and why we need to keep quiet. Either way we don’t say anything to this cop, Stallings. I don’t care how big and scary he is.” He let his eyes scan the room until everyone nodded in agreement; then Kyle let his gaze fall on Elroy, or as most of the brothers called him, Big Bird. He was worried the business accounting major might not have the nerve for this kind of thing. Kyle was worried about him from the beginning, but Zach said they needed his head for numbers. He made sure Elroy caught his gaze and understood what it meant.

  Patty had spent most of the morning going over phone records supplied by Zach Halston’s family. There had been no calls on his cell phone for nearly two weeks, and she had yet to find a pattern of calls that indicated he had a girlfriend or someone he might stay with for an extended period.

  She was so used to spending her days with John Stallings that it felt odd to be working quietly by herself in the office. Tony Mazzetti had been unusually quiet sitting across the squad bay. She had caught a couple of odd, furtive glances, and other than saying hello he hadn’t spoken to her all morning.